Friends of the Elma Library dedicates Alice Knight memorial garden
Published 1:30 am Monday, May 25, 2026
On Saturday morning, Friends of the Elma library, library employees, Master Gardeners and community members gathered outside Elma Library to celebrate the legacy of Alice Knight by dedicating a memorial garden created in her honor.
Susan Cahill, a Master Gardener and vice president of the Friends of Elma Library, welcomed the group and shared that following Knight’s passing in 2023, Friends of Elma Library wanted to recognize her legacy.
Dee Depoe, a former librarian at Elma, suggested to the Friends to place a garden outside the Elma Library, which Knight was instrumental in getting built. Over the course of eight years, she spearheaded fundraising efforts, raising around $70,000 for the building that was completed in 1994.
Since the library is owned by the city, the Friends approached the city in 2025, and they received permission to create a garden in a vacant space on the corner; the tree that once stood there had been cut down by the city.
“This is typical of friends groups,” said Helen Hepp, a member of the Montesano Friends of Library who attended the dedication. “They take something that is meh and they make it beautiful.”
That a garden was chosen to honor Knight reflects her passion for plants, Cahill said to the group. Knight and her husband, Bob, had owned Heather Acres, and she was well-known around the world. Their nursery was featured on Ed Hume’s television show, and Knight even created a new variety of heather called Alice Knight Heather.
Assistance in creating the garden was provided by Grays Harbor Master Gardeners, Satsop Bulb Farm, Satsop Nursery, Kardia Inc. and Terkat Construction. The rock was the idea of Tommy Gransdeb who told Terry Maestas that a rock was needed to anchor the garden.
“Between the two of them they got it here,” Cahill said, and the rock bears a plaque with the inscription “In gratitude to Alice Knight, a visionary community leader who led a grassroots effort to raise money for the Elma Library building constructed in 1994.”
In attendance was Cindy Knight, Alice’s daughter, and she shared how her family came to Elma in fall of 1967, bringing Heather Acres, which they started up north, down with them.
“When we closed the wholesale retail nursery, we had approximately 547 varieties of heather,” Cindy said, adding that they sold to all 50 states and a number of Canadian provinces.
The memorial garden features several varieties of heather, including the Alice Knight Heather variety, a variety of Lithospermum with blue flowers and candytuft. And Cindy gave an impromptu horticulture lesson on the three species of plants that are classified as heather.
“The garden is kind of a work in progress; we’ll probably add and subtract things as we learn more,” Cahill said.
One of the attendees related a story that Alice shared with her, “She said her first book sale [to raise money for the library building] was in front of the city hall from a card table.”
Another attendee complimented the Friends for hosting the dedication ceremony. “Everything about Alice, I’m just in awe of and appreciate her and her contribution to our community. It’s just fabulous.”
“I’ve always lived in towns where the library was there forever, and I assumed this was such a cool library, it’s been here for a long time,” another attendee remarked to Cindy. “And I’m embarrassed to say today’s the first day I’ve realized it wasn’t here until 1994, so thank your mother very much.”
